The Mad Man
Episode 1
“When we get there, I don’t want my fiancée to know that you are my daughter. He is not aware that I have a child already. Please, you must keep your mouth shut. I’m going to tell him that you are the house girl I brought to live with us.” Ndidi tells her daughter Lucy. Lucy just turned 19, looking so beautiful and presentable. She started to imagine herself as a house girl and she found it hard to believe that she would be able to play that role.
“Mum! How can you turn me into a house girl? Are you really serious? You want me to be a house girl in your own house? To be your house girl? In the house of your husband to be? I can’t take this mum!” Lucy shouted at her mother.
She was very angry over the suggestion. At that time, they were already at the gate of Nzube’s house. Nzube is a very rich business man who wanted to remarry because of the death of his wife. He had no child of his own and he was forty five years old. He had already given up on love but decided to try again years after his wife died.
Nzube met Ndidi a year ago and their relationship blossomed to the extent that Nzube can no long sleep without her by his side. She moved in with him three months ago. They became more or less like a married couple. The only thing remaining was just exchange of vows and payment of bride price. Ndidi was just like his wife.
Lucy, Ndidi’s daughter just returned from the university because of ASUU strike, so she has located her mother because she needed a place to stay until the strike was over. She traced her mother when she found out she had moved from their previous apartment.
“It is just for a while. He will soon marry me. He has already proposed to me. When he marries me, I will then tell him that you are my daughter. By the way, he has no child of his own, so he will be too happy to accept you as his child. Please, just do this for me. Just pretend to be the house girl. It is just for a few weeks before he marries me, then everything will return to how it is supposed to be. You will have everything you want. The house girl is just a cover up.” Ndidi said. She had that irresistible motherly plea in her eyes, and Lucy found it hard to say no to her.
“Ok Mum. What you are asking me to do is very demeaning. Imagine me turning myself into a house girl in a house where I’m supposed to be enjoying. Me? A 200-level student? But it’s fine, I will do it.” Lucy said as the entered Nzube’s compound. The house is a palatial mansion and Lucy was swept off her feet when she saw the massive three storey building..
“Wow! You mean this is his house. I mean your fiancée’s house? Mum, you are very lucky. Wow!” Lucy said. She stopped briefly and took a look at the build before the stepped into it. She has never seen such a big house not to talk of sleeping inside.
“Yes my dear. God finally remembered me and blessed me with the love of my life after many years of suffering. This is your house now my daughter. Remember not to call me mum. In this house, I’m your madam. If you call me mum, you will ruin everything I have built the past one year.” Ndidi said with a serious warning in her eyes.
They immediately went into the building and settled down. Nzube was yet to return from work. Lucy was told to feel at home. She was taken to the guest room where she kept her things. Although, it is tastefully furnished, Lucy still felt isolated and she felt insulted by the title ‘house girl’ but she decided to let the sleeping dogs lie.
Meanwhile, a mad man had secretly followed them from the moment they dropped off from the taxi. The mad man camped outside the gate. He had knocked severally and the gateman refused to let him in.
“What are you looking for in this compound?” The gateman asked the mad man after opening the gate.
“My daughter entered this house right now. I saw her with my ‘koro koro’ eyes.” The mad man said. He was laughing as he spoke with the gateman.
“Are you mad? Are you out of your mind? Your daughter is not here. Who told you that you have a daughter? I think the demons in your head are at work. I’m closing my eyes right now. I want you to vamoose before I open them.” The gateman said.
“Okay. I will go but I will be back for my daughter.” The mad man said as he left the place.
“Go and never return!” The gateman warned the mad man who by then had gone very far.
But the next day, the mad man returned just as he had promised. He was talking with the gateman when Ndidi saw him from the balcony where she was sitting and drinking wine and her heart dropped into her belly.
“My eyes must be deceiving me. Is that not Ude?” She asked herself as she immediately came downstairs and went straight to the gate.
“Listen to me.” She said to gateman who had managed to pursue the mad man again.
“You must never allow that man into this building. Any day I find him even at the gate, or close to it, I will make sure you lose your job. Have I made myself clear?” She yelled at the gateman.
“Yes madam. But it is not my fault o! He is the one who keeps coming to ask of his daughter. Madam, is his daughter in this house?” The gateman asked.
“Shut up your dirty mouth and do your job. I will tell my fiancé to sack you if I ever see that man near this gate again.” Ndidi said. She was shouting very loudly. The gateman became very scared, and more determined to deal with the mad man if he ever sees him again.
As he walked back inside the house, Ndidi remembered her past. She and the mad man were married for one year before he ran mad. They lived a very happy life and she loved him so much. They were very young then.
They were living in Aba by then by that time. That was 19 years ago when she was pregnant for Lucy. Ude suddenly ran mad and disappeared from the house one evening and he has never seen him again since then. After waiting endlessly for him to return, Ndidi gave up and decided to move on with her life.
“My past has come back to haunt me. I thought you were lost Ude my love, but here you are. You are still alive. You even still recognize me and remembered that he has a daughter. How did he find this place? How did he know that I now live in Port Harcourt? Indeed, blood is thicker than water. I think he knows that he has a child. He wants to come and ruin my present happiness. I will not allow this.” Ndidi said.
She is already deeply in love with Nzube. She is currently forty years old but she still hopes she can marry again and bear a child for Nzube before hitting menopause.
“I have a battle to fight. I have to make the mad man disappear so that I will achieve my aim of getting married to Nzube. He is very rich and I love him. I can’t lose him. He is the only thing I have right now and the mad man cannot ruin our love. I suffered so much when Ude ran mad. I must marry Nzube and the mad man cannot ruin my plans. The battle line is drawn.” Nididi said as she took another sip of her wine.
Watch out for episode 2.
